


Just A Taste (Of What You Paid For)

by mihrsuri



Category: The Tudors (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Multi, Tumblr Prompt, Universe switching
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2020-07-02
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:00:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24770458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mihrsuri/pseuds/mihrsuri
Summary: Henry wakes up to a world askew (or my Tudors OT3 verse Henry wakes up in regular Tudors timeline and is like I Do Not Like This At All).
Relationships: Anne Boleyn/Thomas Cromwell/Henry VIII of England
Comments: 17
Kudos: 51





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Title from a Panic! At The Disco song that I Have Always Thought Really Fit Henry.

Henry kneels against cold stone where once he had kissed warm bodies, had cradled them in his arms, had danced and laughed and a thousand other things. It was wrong that they were gone at all - that they were cold and still but it was worse that they were here.

No marble tomb, no loving effigy, no inscriptions or mourners. He could not even kiss their stone lips, could not gaze upon their images for they had been obliterated. He had done that. He, who had vowed to cherish and protect them to his last breath had thrown them into a common grave. Had given his Queen no coffin, no tomb and no memory and his Duke (though King beside him in Henry’s heart, just the same as Anne is his Queen) a butchers axe.

Anne, Anne who had been hastily pushed into a chest that had held arrows because there had been nothing else, no grace or kindness that he had given - not even a coffin. No, he had given her an expert swordsman and aught else.

He had sent Thomas to die under a butchers axe. He had done that - had allowed his love to die in pain in front of his oldest son. He makes himself read the letter that Thomas had sent him, traces the word mercy over and over again in the familiar hand.

“Shall I die without justice?” Anne had said it, he hears and he wonders, did she ever truly hope that she would? (No one will tell him now she had sounded when she said it).

In truth what Henry wants is to find his other self and beat him to a pulp for doing this. For thinking that somehow it was right, it was just and fair. For causing so much pain. 

When he discovers he is married to little Katy Howard he is horrified. Sickened. Katherine Howard is one of Elizabeth’s favourite ladies, another sister and a daughter to him. A delightful golden fairy of a child. He throws up everything in his stomach and then, then he goes to her. 

Katherine Howard is married to a good and loving man, allowed to retain all her honours and income (”I have realised that I am too old for her - she has no deficiency but there is fault on my part for having married her”) and the court is surprised.  
They are even more so when the King declares Thomas Cromwell and Anne Boleyn innocent and that they are to be reburied with all honours. 

He had awoken in this new world cold and bewildered that there was no one in his bed - his loves had been asleep against him - Thomas on his chest and Anne curled against Thomas but her legs tangled with his. Henry had fallen asleep with their warmth and the sight of Anne’s falcon and Thomas’ raven. He had closed his eyes wrapped in bed coverings embroidered with acorns, honeysuckle, poppies, myrtle and roses and awoke to something else entirely. 

Henry has still been in a daze when the groom had come to dress him or he might have noticed earlier that the man starts, his face white and terrified with surprise - as though he had been expecting someone else entirely. 

It had taken Charles to tell him, in the end. When he had met Charles as he had come out of his rooms and Charles had started in horror and stammered “....your leg” and Henry had said, what about my leg? 

“....I thought it a miracle that it had healed” Charles says and then Henry asks where is Queen Anne, where are our children? Have they left court for a time and that is when Charles truly looks at him with an expression that Henry never wants to see again. 

“....Henry, the lady Anne was executed for adultery and treason in 1536. Do you not remember? Lady Elizabeth is her only child” 

He does not remember Charles catching him by the arms as he slumps to the floor in numb despair, does not truly remember what he said but he somehow manages to convince this Charles that he is not from this world but another.  
-  
“You adore Anne with all your heart Charles - you and Mary both” and he watches Charles start because in this world his wife is dead, it seems.  
Henry does not understand why Charles had looked guilty when he had told him about Anne.  
-  
He remembers when he had been told about Thomas. He remembers that all too well and he wishes he could erase it from himself but it is seared upon his soul.

-

Henry wants to see his daughters but is not sure that he can, not yet. He is not sure he ever can, not sure he can find the words but he makes himself send for Mary. He finds a woman who is terrified of him - he and his oldest child had taken time to soften around each other again but as her own children had been born they had, through painful conversations, come to a new understanding and he knows Mary as a happy woman. 

The lady before him is not, for all that she tells him she is. And he knows he cannot tell her the reassurances that would have worked on the Mary he knows - this Mary has been more cruelly treated by her father than he can ever imagine. 

Instead, instead he asks her if she would wish to be married and she starts, stops, looks at him in wonder and stammers a yes. She stops even more when he asks her if she has had a man she wishes to marry. 

“I do not think apologies would be sufficient Mary - nor do I blame you for not believing me sincere but let me do this one thing for you - give you a husband who will love you and a family of your own and your title of Princess back.” 

Princess Mary Tudor becomes Duchess of Bavaria after all. She will adore her sister Elizabeth all her life. 

Elizabeth, Elizabeth is somehow harder, perhaps because he has always known Elizabeth as his little princess, his darling jewel.

_Elizabeth, Elizabeth is somehow harder, perhaps because he has always known Elizabeth as his little princess, his darling jewel._

The Elizabeth that Henry knows is bright, golden and happy - she delights in her family and in her scholarship. The Elizabeth he meets here is solemn and all too serious for her seven years and there is a worry behind her smile as she greets him. But of course there is, Henry thinks - I have had her mother beheaded, I have taken away all her certainty and...he had denied that she was his child at all. 

Looking at her now he wishes to shake his other self more than ever - this extraordinary girl is so very much his and Anne's that no one could truly deny it. He leashes his rage however, because he knows that Bess has had far too much rage from her father and gentles his expression. 

"Hello my little Bess" he says and he is glad to see his little girl still brightens at an embrace from him and he takes her up onto his lap as he has not been able to do with his Bess recently as she has grown too much. "Are you well, my jewel?"

"I am very well your majesty. And I was glad of your gifts to me - I assure you I will study them very well."

Henry's heart breaks at the all too formal address from a little girl who should still be able to run carefree into his arms, who should know nothing but adoration and love from her father. 

"Oh my little Bessie - I should always be Papa to you my darling - I am so sorry if you have been made to think otherwise." 

His daughter looks at him for a moment, hesitantly and then starts to say something but then she stops and Henry thinks it might be time to tell her what he wishes to.   
"My jewel I have something to tell you sweetheart. About your mama. You see...Bess, I believed horrible lies about her, lies I should not have listened to. I was very wrong, my darling." 

Elizabeth looks at him and he can see tears in her eyes that she tries to blink away and oh Lord, have I taught her that she might not cry Henry thinks as he embraces her tightly and murmurs reassuring words that it is all right for her to shed tears, that she is his precious daughter and he is so very sorry. 

"Papa, may I ask you something?" she says to him and he nods because of course she might. 

"Is that why I am not a Princess anymore?" 

Henry restores Elizabeth's title as Princess and gives her a miniature portrait of her mother. He also gives her the title of Duchess of Pembroke, in honour of her mother and tells the little girl that she is his delight, his beautiful bright little princess. It is a beginning, at least. 

-

He does not want to subject Gregory Cromwell to a meeting with the man who has done what he has. Cannot imagine hurting the gentle young man that he knows even further with thinking that any apologies, any words could take away the pain. But not facing him at all feels cowardly - so Henry writes a letter, offering to meet if Gregory wishes - telling him that he will restore all his fathers titles. 

Gregory replies briefly but written underneath the formal acceptance of the titles is a very short message that brings tears to Henry's eyes. 

-

When Henry Tudor awakens the next morning the world is righted again and he cannot stop crying. There are beautiful bed hangings and coverings - ravens and falcons and roses and flowers. He is warmed by his two dark haired loves. He can see the cradles that hold Edmund and Pippa.   
His soul is home.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is regular universe Henrys experience of Universe Switching. I want to say special thanks to DeerShifter who provided the spark of inspiration that meant I could write this next part at all. I also want to say that um, the universes timelines don't run the same. So in OT3 verse it's late June/early July 1547 and in regular verse it is 1540

There had been a moment when he was half asleep that Henry had thought he had felt arms around him, two warm bodies against his and soft kisses to his forehead but when he awakens it is gone. He does not notice the difference in the embroidered bed coverings and hangings nor the fact that the bed chamber he is in is far far different than the one he had fallen asleep in. 

He does notice the two cradles standing next to the bed and that, that is when Henry thinks he must still be dreaming - that the disappointment of Katherine’s mistaken pregnancy has seeped into his mind and it has conjured this. But he still finds himself levering himself out of bed to look upon them. 

It hurts to do so, which is the first indication that it is no dream. And then there is the slight chill of the early morning and the solid feel of the cradle beneath his hands that say that this is no dream but something else entirely. 

The first babe has a mass of red brown curls that escape from a white embroidered cap and Henry can see his own face staring back at him from the infants sleeping one. The child is clearly a robust one - solid and substantial and alive. Alive. 

A mistake, Henry thinks - I should call for a groom to remove them to whichever rooms they were meant to be in, but he finds himself hesitating, letting his fingers wrap around a tiny hand as he looks into the other cradle. 

The second babe is a tiny perfect little bundle - there are black curls peaking out from under a cap and though small is just as alive as the first infant. Just as present and solid in a way that should not be but Henry, Henry cannot help but stand there a moment, giving himself up to the dream that it is real, that they are here to stay, that they are his. 

“Hello little ones” he finds himself saying, in the voice he had once used when his children were small. It is this that opens their eyes and that, that is when Henry sees a ghost. It is not just that the second baby has the eyes of a woman he has sworn to forget (has tried so very much to forget, even if they do stare out from the face of one of his daughters) it is that that very woman is walking into his bedchamber, a soft smile upon her face that he has forced himself to believe that he does not remember. Does not miss. 

Anne Boleyn stands in his rooms and Henry thinks he must truly be dreaming and cannot decide if it is a nightmare, delusion or somewhat else. He thinks to scream for a guard but somehow he cannot make himself speak, can only watch as Anne walks smiling towards the cradles and bends down to take the babes in her arms. She is not really looking at him, not at this moment but the look on her face? The look on her face is one that Henry had not seen for a long time before...before it had ended. 

She is happy. 

“My darlings, did you miss m...” 

Anne looks at Henry then in confusion and bewilderment and asks what, what has happened to your leg? It is then that Henry shouts for the guards, who rush in in confusion. 

“Your majesty, it is the Queen - not an impostor as you claim.” 

The words go through Henry like ice, even as he hears...hears her calling for the physician. It cannot be, surely it cannot be. His world has gone askew and surely, surely this is some devilment or diabolical scheme but the world is solid around him, ordinary. 

It cannot be, It cannot be is all he can think as Dr Butts is ushered in and he curtly requests that “that woman” should leave. Henry tries to ignore the feeling of regret at her look of hurt. 

-

“Your majesty, it is 1547 not 1540 and your majesty has been married to Queen Anne since 1533 and...what has happened to your leg? I do not understand how you could have injured it so in the night?”

Henry’s physician is level in his tone but Henry can hear the bewilderment in his voice as he speaks, especially at Henry’s leg. He finds himself saying that he did not injure himself overnight, he reopened an old ulcer in 1536 and then, then Dr Butts looks at him. 

“Your majesty, if I may - you did not compete in the joust in January of that year though there was another man who was seriously wounded - you had a minor cut from a splinter of wood and nothing else.” 

It is then that Henry asks for Charles. He starts in some kind of horrified sadness when he sees his sister join him. His sister who has been dead for years now, but here, here she is very much alive and clearly happy. 

-

“I...I have stepped into another world Charles and I do not know my bearings.” is what he says in the end because he does not. Because this was not the world in which he closed his eyes and it does not disappear so, so perhaps it is no dream. 

Somehow he has found himself somewhere else and he must understand this place in which he has found himself. 

-

“You...you sought an annulment after Henry Fitzroy was born and gained it, though not permission to marry his mother.”

“You met Queen Anne..you met her some time after Fitzroy died - she truly bought you back to yourself for she is the best of woman.”

“Anne, Anne has always been a sister to both Charles and I brother - and a friend and second mother to Mary.”

“...What could you wish of the Seymours? Mistress Jane is married in the country and her brothers are exiled or beheaded for their treason” 

“Henry...do you not remember your children?”

“Katherine Howard? Little Katy Howard? She’s such a sweet child - an adopted daughter to you and to Anne almost and a great favourite of Bess”

“...you have no son named Edward.” 

“...how many children? You have nine, including Mary.” 

-

Henry counts off his...by the lord, eight children. Eight. And a world in which it is his sweet Jane who is scorned and that...that woman is loved. Surely, surely it cannot be and yet, yet it is. Surely, surely She would always be the shameless witch and whore he had always told himself she had always been. Surely it could not be otherwise?

And then, then Henry sees Prince Thomas. His oldest son. He is Henry’s image, but it is her smile and bearing that Henry sees and this boy, this boy is perfect in every way. He is the perfect prince that Henry had once...he had thought he would once have, with Anne and had told himself could never have happened when she was such a shameless traitor. 

But he is here. He is here and now, Henry hears that he was named in part for Thomas Cromwell. Thomas Cromwell who is a Duke. Thomas Cromwell who is alive as well.


	3. Chapter 3

“The Prince of Wales celebrated his eleventh birthday this May just passed - the nineteenth of May to be precise. I may be biased a little as he is my godson but truly Henry, he is the perfect Prince and he will be a great king one day.” 

He stares at Charles and Henry, Henry finds he cannot find the words. The nineteenth of May. At around eight in the morning. The same time. The same moment that...and this boy, this boy is undeniably his as much as his mothers. A sick sort of doubt is coming into his mind that will not disappear. 

He had been so sure that the child she had lost could not be any of his and yet...this boy, this son is. His heart sinks when he thinks on how he had not really looked at any of the evidence that had been bought to him. He had not wanted to look. He had been so angry, so sure that Anne could never give him a son and tired of her that he had listened to what he had wished to her. 

And yet, yet she has given him five. 

And Charles, Charles hands him a miniature painting, telling Henry that he had had it commissioned recently to mark the birth of his youngest children. 

Henry looks at them. Looks at all of them. There is George who is to turn nine on the coming Christmas Day - a dark haired boy with his mother’s eyes - a Duke of York. Then William and Margaret - a pair of redheads who Henry thinks might have been the most mischievous were it not such a solemn occasion. They are seven and six respectively (”though Liam will tell you that he is very soon to be eight”). Then another dark haired boy with a quietness in his small frame whose name he is told is Owen who has recently turned five. 

“...and this is Edmund” Charles says gesturing to the solidly cheerful babe with red hair and waving hands.

“And the other babe?”

“Your daughter Philippa your majesty - though we call her Pippa”

Pippa is the tiny perfect bundle - a beautiful little fairy of a babe who Henry thinks he might once have imagined in the family that he would build. All the children are. Every one of them. 

-

Charles has left him alone for the moment, telling Henry he should look through his rooms while Charles attends to other matters and Henry, Henry does so. He is too shocked to do otherwise. These rooms of his...other self, are beautifully appointed and clearly lived in by both the King and Queen. 

And then he sees the decorations. Poppies, acorns, honeysuckle. Roses. Myrtle. Falcons. Lions and...ravens. When he sees the swan shaped candle holders he can feel his gorge rise, thinking of that day and how he had...had he truly celebrated the death of an innocent woman? A woman he had vowed to love and protect, a woman who was the mother of his child? Henry tries to tell himself no but it rings hollow in his ears as he looks around these rooms. 

There is a bathing chamber decorated in a similar style and a great number of books, one of which Henry picks up and then...then he starts at the inscription inside. It is in his own hand and what it says is...it is something that he has never admitted he wanted but suddenly sees. 

“My dark haired love, my raven and my moon. Know that you will always be ours, my Duke.” 

That is when he knows. And when Henry awakens in the cold bed of his own world he feels the tears upon his face at what he has lost. 

-

“But you did not make his choices love - you and he are not the same man.”

It is Thomas who says it and the conviction in his voice is strong. And it is Anne who nods with a sweet smile. 

“Even when it was bad between us love, I never...never feared that. And you did not do so, even if he did.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There may be one more chapter with some bonus deleted scenes or they may end up on Tumblr but regardless, please feel free to play with this AU verse if you wish.


End file.
